Lets all work together to keep Georgia State Parks and Historic Sites open…
…The headline says it all. We in
Georgia have an obligation and duty to keep our State Parks and Historic
Sites open. We have an obligation to ourselves and a duty to those who
will follow us. The announcement by Georgia DNR Commissioner Chris
Clark of May 27, 2009 was not the first restructuring of State Parks and
Historic Sites that we have experienced nor sadly will it be the last.
Restructuring and reorganization have come to mean only one thing in
Georgia government reducing an existing budget deficit. The failure of
the executive branch to properly and pragmatically prioritize those
services which the state government is both legally bound and
constitutionally mandated to offer its citizens is a failure of
leadership and of will.
GORHA is not an advocacy organization
for any branch of government or particular public interest group.
Because of this status we are able to speak more directly to the
problems that create these budget deficits and offer solutions other
than restructuring and reorganization.
Frankly, restructuring and
reorganization are euphemisms for multiple failures. The most obvious
failure occurs in the budgeting process when unrealistic but politically
palatable projections are created in the executive branch. These
revenue projections are most often rooted in a cursory, superficial
review of prior years revenue rather than a thoughtful analysis of state
and national economic indicators. The tendency is to ignore the needs
of citizens and satisfy the political wants of elected officials, and
always and correctly provide Georgia with a constitutionally mandated
balanced budget. Over and over again, budgets reflect the boom or bust
realities of current economic crisis’s, overestimating surplus and
failing to predict shortage. We need to step back and take a hard look
at why we continually face this boom or bust cycle, we need to ask hard
questions as to its efficacy, and how we can substantially improve the
process and the result.
Perhaps the first question
that we should ask in the process of budgeting and providing these
services which we offer our citizens is: What do we want the State to
provide us in the way of outdoor recreation and legacy education? How
many parks and historic sites should we have? Are there new areas and
sites which should be included in the system? Are there parks and sites
which should be closed? What services would be desired, what facilities
need to be improved, or constructed? How can we better market these
locations and generate sufficient revenue? How are our parks and sites
best managed? What educational opportunities exist or should be
created? How important is legacy and heritage?
It may well be that many of the sites
that we have work properly and were correctly chosen for the
recreational and historical value that they possess. It may well be that
we should not consider removing or closing any of the sites. It may
even be determined that other sites, other locations should be
considered for inclusion into the state park and historic site system.
What is certain is that the process should begin with a careful and
thorough review of what the State Parks and Historic Sites mean to the
citizens of Georgia, to their communities, to those of us involved in
outdoor recreation and to those who will in the future benefit greatly
from our stewardship. Thankfully, it is not impossible to predict future
population growth; to predict future demographic trends; to predict the
locations of expanding communities and the limitations of
transportation systems that are needed for public access to outdoor
recreation opportunities and exposure to historic sites. Legacy
education, which offers perspectives on how we came to be the people
that we are, is critical in preserving our heritage and defining our
future.
We often hear the term "stakeholders"
in reference to public entities; with State Parks and Historic Sites,
every citizen in the State of Georgia is a stakeholder, and the needs of
all citizens must be considered and included in a careful study to
determine where we are now and where we’re going in the future with
State Parks and Historic Sites.
It is my belief that holding a series
of public hearings late in the evening or at lunch in public libraries
scattered throughout geographic areas of the state, as is practiced now,
is grossly inadequate to determine the value and importance of State
Parks and Historic Sites in the public’s perception and the public’s
need of outdoor recreation and legacy education. The internet offers
us an amazing opportunity not only to determine what the public wants,
but to create grassroots support for new and exciting initiatives to
assure public satisfaction and public use of State Parks and Historic
Sites. Working with hundreds of industry specific web sites, with
elementary and secondary schools and with Georgia's colleges and
universities, we can more accurately determine the interest and support
that exists for State Parks and Historic Sites. Using mass media
together with the internet, we can reach tens of thousands of outdoor
enthusiasts, and with modern public opinion survey techniques, we can
randomly sample voters to gauge thier interest and support. We don't
need sub-committees, highly compensated "marketing research" consultants
or another government "study" group. We need to collect and analyze
facts.
The second question that
should be asked is: Is the existing structure which delivers State Parks
and Historic Sites to citizens the most efficient and desirable means
to do so? The cyclic nature of the government budgeting combined with
the political interests of the executive branch leave little room for
creativity or experimentation in methods and means of delivering
outdoor recreation and legacy learning experiences to the general
public. If, as we have seen, there is a continual need for
restructuring and reorganization and then it should occur to us that we
need to find a better structure, free of meddlesome politics and cyclic
revenue variations.
I believe that such a structure exists
and has been successful in our state for over a half century. The
experience of both the Jekyll Island Authority and the Stone Mountain
Authority point the way to a better model, one that has stood the test
of time and delivered meaningful outdoor recreation experiences to
literally millions of Georgians. What if we were to take this existing
model and create from it a new authority, the Georgia State Parks and
Historic Sites Authority. What if we transfer ownership and management
of all properties to such an authority, with a mandate to create, within
three years, a self sufficient, fee for use based fiscal system. Such a
governing structure could benefit from the financial capacity of state
issued bonds and our state’s credit rating to maintain and develop an
expanding system of Parks and Historic Sites. Under such a plan, parks
and historic sites could charge day use fees equal of the cost of day to
day maintenance; they could enter into relationships with city and
county governments to provide services benefiting specific local needs;
and through vendor relationships beneficial to both parties, they could
generate a self supporting revenue stream.
Best of all, with the advent of the new
smart ID cards and Georgia Driver’s Licenses, soon to be issued, no
citizen would be left out of the enormous benefit that outdoor
recreation and legacy education provides. The Georgia State Parks and
Historic Sites Authority could offer premium park passes, event passes,
with significant discounts to those citizens who for whatever reason are
economically challenged, physically disabled, or deserving of special
consideration. An annual park pass could be purchased at the time of
renewal of their smart driver’s license or ID card, and that same card
could then be used and read electronically as a park pass. Citizens
unable to pay for daily park passes could be identified by incorporating
their EBT or other eligibility data electronically onto their card; in
fact, the smart card could replace numerous forms of personal
identification and entitlement. Such a system would be invaluable to fiscal and marketing management.
A key feature of such an improved
system is that not every state park would necessarily have to “break
even” or produce a surplus of revenue; the parks and sites which are
more visited, more popular with citizen consumers would produce revenue
in excess of their needs and that revenue would be used to subsidize
other Parks and State Historic Sites. With the ability to judiciously
issue bonds, purchases of historic sites, battlegrounds, and much needed
urban park sites would be possible without the need to be delayed until
state budget revenue allows their purchase or regrettably, until we
lose the ability to purchase because of sale to private entities. New
sites could be nominated, historic markers could be maintained and
erected, and cooperating with GA DOT, road side and directional markers
could be installed, increasing access and outdoor recreational
opportunities for Georgia citizens and out of state tourists alike.
Another key feature of such an
authority is the unbridled ability to market, to promote, to drive and
increase market share in an increasingly competitive disposable income
scenario. Partnering with local entrepreneurs, with stringent
eligibility guidelines, specific services and facilities could be
privately provided or managed. The outrageously meager current
expenditure for state and national tourism promotion could be augmented
with significant investments in brand development, targeted advertising,
and consumer awareness programs. Tourism is the second largest industry in
Georgia, imagine how large an industry it would be if it were promoted
in the same manner as some of our privately owned attractions!
Obesity
is a pervasive problem among school age children and sedentary adults,
and developing the enjoyment, the habit of hiking, biking, jogging,
camping, kayaking, just being outdoors under the sun and the stars is a
healthful alternative to thumb play and American idol worship.
The authority would have the same
ability to hire and compensate the best and brightest in the advertising
and promotion business. Consider this carefully: Can you imagine our
State’s Lottery success, and payout to HOPE, if government employees
were in charge of promoting it? We are sitting on under-promoted, under
utilized TREASURES, and government not only can’t make them pay for
themselves, government can’t afford to pay for them at all!
The May 27th announcement stated that
ninety- five full and part- time employees would be separated from their
positions and 81 vacant positions eliminated. This comes on the top of
previous reductions in force and maintenance cut-backs that have
eviscerated nature studies, historic interpretation, educational
facilities, damaged park attendance and the public’s perception of the
value of our TREASURES.
Maintenance, who needs it? Security,
who needs it? Toilets, who needs ‘em? Who cares what type of tree that
is, is that a frog or toad? Is that plant native to Georgia?
Who cares?
Don’t you?
Working together, we can eliminate the
influence of politics and budgetary foolishness on our most precious
common possessions, the State Parks and Historic Sites of Georgia.
Bull Sullivan
Editor, GORHA.com
The Peach State Update